Moving, nuanced, historical saga of the finest quality

Long admired the work of Whitaker. As a life long fan of movies and long time student of American politics and history, but unfortunately a cranky old left winger from the frozen North, my opinion can be safely ignored.

This picture will win Best Picture at the Oscars. FW will win best actor. Oprah will be nominated but will lose.

I was moved by ever scene. I had to wipe away some tears in more than one moment of this wrenching family story. Some people may say that FW underwhelmed, but I believe his underplaying was not really underplaying but instead was subtle, nuanced and slowly built up a complex personality. Oprah shaded her role in an equally effective way. The overall pacing of the film seemed just about perfect.

I was delighted and surprised to see the actors assembled to play the Presidents. I had not read about them in advance. John Cusack as Nixon and Rickman as Reagan I found especially effective. I was surprised to learn about Reagan’s effort to pay black WH staff equally and to ensure that they had access to internal promotion and departmental transfers to more high paying jobs.

I don’t know if anyone else has used this plot before but I think it is one of those gem ideas that can go anywhere. As I started to watch this, my fascination with the premise of the piece grew and grew. The various characters comfortably held my attention as I continued to wonder how it was going to work out. What more can you ask of a movie.

Donnie Wahlberg was excellent, but then he always is (Sgt. Lipton in Band of Brothers, how hard was it to stand out in a huge ensemble of guys of military service age, but he did more than fine). Watching Pete Postlethwaite‘s face is like reading a library full of quality novels all in a glance. He is perfect in the role. I wish Rappaport had a little more to do in this one. Neil Morrissey and Adrian Dunbar were perfectly matched as low-rent crooks stumbling into a little more than they could handle. I am going to see where else I can find Claire Forlani‘s work, she was very, very likable in this. At the end I finally realized how little time was spent outside the hotel but that was okay with me.